Performance Enhancing "Drugs"

Originally written September 24, 2007 - Monday


Just to be clear, this isn't a missive on how Floyd Landis was stripped of his Tour de France title. That topic has been discussed ad nauseum on every cycling board in the world.

This is a post about something to which every athlete reading this can relate. The "runner's high". The "endorphin rush". The natural version of morphine that is produced after an extended period of high intensity exercise. The natural performance-enhancing drug.

You've all been there. Four miles into your run, thinking you won't make it through the fifth when suddenly you feel a burst of energy that takes you easily over that last mile. Or even 20 minutes into Spinning class, feeling like you have legs of lead and won't make it through the class...and the next thing you know the instructor is leading the cool-down. Or climbing some 15% grade on your bike, thinking you might actually have to get off and walk at some point, and the next thing you know you're at the summit.

It's real. It exists. And if you like challenging your body, you've experienced it and you crave it. That explains why athletes and triathletes go out there day after day and push their bodies to their limits.

In Philadelphia there is an annual bike race; it's one of the top races in the country and it draws riders and teams from all over the world. The course for the race takes riders through the city, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway by the famous art museum, and along beautiful, winding Kelly (East River) Drive along the Schuykill, then through a neighborhood called Manayunk. Manayunk is literally set into the side of a hill, like some of the villages in Italy.

This is obviously an important part of the course route because it features a stretch of road known as "The Wall". Thus nicknamed by local cyclists, as in "hitting the wall", it is about a 20% grade if memory serves. I've walked it (difficult in and of itself) but never ridden it. When I lived in Philly I wasn't a strong enough rider to attempt this hill. But I'm going there in 3 weeks and I've already arranged to rent a road bike at a shop a few blocks from "The Wall".

Note the photo below. Don't look at the rider yet, just look at the crowd of spectators to her left and then the roof-lines of the houses. The fact that the roof of one house is level with the first story of the house above it gives you a pretty good idea of the steepness of the hill.

I don't have a lot of experience with hills. Michigan, at least in the lower portions, is pretty flat. I'm pretty sure I'm not up to this challenge, but I'm also not above getting off my bike and walking. The worst that can happen? I lose my momentum while clipped into the pedals, not be able to get a foot down in time and go over sideways like some Monty Python animation. One good thing about being too old to be a great athlete is that I'm mature enough not to give a shit if I make a fool of myself.

Back to the photo. We've established that this is a bastard of a hill. Now look at the rider. She's out of the saddle; that means she's really pushing hard. Look at her braids flying. She's got that bike whipping back and forth with the force of her pedal stroke.

Now look at her face. That grin is priceless.

I want to be her, if only for 5 minutes.

Powerful drugs, those endorphins.